Interview Availabilities with Matt Gonzalez

INTERVIEWAVAILABLE: Nader VP Matt Gonzalez available for comment on the bailout, the war, the effect of third parties on the election & opening the debates

Independent vice-presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez, an uncompromising critic of the two major parties, recently called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi "the worst Speaker we’ve ever had" for her continued support for the war in Iraq.

Gonzalez fiercely opposes the mammoth bailout bill aimed to reward Wall St. speculators for their greedy gambling. "I like to refer to it as a bailout of the two-party system because it’s really the system that failed to adequately protect the American people from [the financial meltdown]," Gonzalez said.

Delivering the official Nader/Gonzalez response to the first presidential debate last week, Gonzalez said that Ralph Nader, Green candidate Cynthia McKinney and Libertarian Bob Barr should have been included. "Any candidate that’s on enough state ballots to actually win the contest should have participated in that debate."

Gonzalez also accused the major party candidates of "lying" to the country for promoting nuclear energy as a viable alternative energy option, saying it has proven to be a "tremendous failure" in terms of safety.

This year Nader/Gonzalez is on 45 state ballots, plus D.C. — a record for Nader. Polls show Nader/Gonzalez at 5-6 percent nationally and as high as 6-8 percent in key battleground states like Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, indicating that the Independent ticket will be a factor in this year’s election.

In the controversial article which launched his VP bid last February, "The Obama Craze: Count Me Out," Gonzalez was one of the first to criticize the voting record of the Democratic nominee.

Though the less known half of the Nader/Gonzalez ticket this year, the 43-year-old civil rights attorney is an accomplished progressive politician and activist. In 2000, Gonzalez was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, and in 2003 was elected board president. While in office he led the charge to raise the minimum wage to one of the highest in the nation and implement Instant Runoff (IRV) or Ranked Choice Voting. In 2003 he narrowly lost the San Francisco mayor’s race, winning 47 percent of the vote. (http://www.votenader.org/about/matt-gonzalez/)